The objective of the study was to study the perceptions of student teachers and educators of an educational cluster as a tool for improving the professional competence of future educators, and to identify the cluster-related tools to be used to improve the professional competence of future educators. The project evaluation checklist for experts, a questionnaire for participants in the experiment, a semi-structured interview questionnaire to conduct with focus group respondents were used for collecting data. Data were processed using content analysis technique and SPSS Statistics v24 package. The study is quantitative, based on subjective evaluations of study participants and representatives of educational clusters, and does not aim at evaluating students' achievements. Two simulation models of the educational cluster ("Cluster Educational Initiative" and "Cluster of Educational Opportunities for Educators 2.0") and four educational activities for educators (discussion "Agglomeration of Subjects, Educational Institutions: Realities and Prospects"; online conference "Ukraine-Brussels-Sharing Experience in Education"; an educational tour to Finland for teachers, parents and managers in the field of education; the exchange of four teachers from two schools) was a key result of this study. It has been found that the creation of clusters for improving the professional competence of future educators and their professional advancement is now part of national education policy in Ukraine and in the world. The tools of this form of organization of educational activity are competence-oriented and aimed at deepening professional experience, development of competences of realization of lifelong education, creation of own public image.

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The article analyzes the peculiarities of art education in Ukraine within the framework of artistic discourse. It has been determined the essence and structure of artistic education. The normative documents, which concretize the tasks, set before art education, have been specified. The notion of “art school” has been defined. The main functions of art have been described, in particular the focus has been on a communicative one. It has been characterized the directions according to which the communicative function of national artistic education is realized. It has been stressed that the process of implementation of communicative function of artistic education provides for a constant communication which involves communicators – persons who initiate the process of communication, and communicants – the persons, who perceive messages. It has been established that communicative aspect of art is manifested primarily in the ability of the artistic language as an appropriate sign system to capture, store and transmit information of intellectual and emotional essence that encodes the spiritual experience of humanity, of an individual nation; that artistic communication – is a subjective process of coding/decoding artistic information. It has been summarized that communicative function of art ensures the functioning of artistic education and the continuity of the development of artistic culture in Ukraine.

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